Railway car



Aug. 21, 1934. .G. G. G lLPlN 1,971,179

RAI LWAY CAR Filed Nov. 9, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 G. G. GILPIN RAILWAYCAR Aug. 21, 1934.

Filed Nov. 9, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ///////l. Will/(I,

llllllll Patented Aug. 21 1934 UNITED STATES;

mi iLwAroz'i'it Garth G. Gilpin, Riverside, Illgas'sig'nor to" UnionMetal Products Company, Chicago, Ill.,.a corporation of DelawareApplication November 9, 1931, SerialNo. 573,919

The invention relates to railway cars and the object of the invention isto provide means to increase the vertical inside available height of arailway car for loading automobiles, or simi- :18.1 articles, withoutlowering the floor of the car, and furthermore, if used with a carhaving a roof, to increase such available height without lowering thefloor or raising the roof of the car.

In loading automobiles, especially the smaller type, they are elevatedto an oblique position (as illustrated on the drawings herein) until oneend of the auto is adjacent the roof of i the railway car and thenanother automobile is 5 -placed partially under the first automobile.Ob-

viously the greater the angle of elevation of the first automobile, thefurther the second automobile may be moved thereunder and the lesshorizontal space in the railway car will be occupied by the twoassembled cars; furthermore,

the greater the vertical inside height of the railway car, the greatermay be the angle of elevation of the first mentioned automobile.

The height of the floor of a car is determined g5-i by the height of thecenter sills or backbone of the car, which in turn is determined by theheight of the coupler and its associated shock absorber, which must bemaintained so that any car will readily and automatically couple with?;any other car. This coupler height is a standard with the AmericanRailway Association and is used and has been used for a quarter of acentury by all the railroads of the United States and Canada.

5; The roofs of railway cars now in service,

which were designed especially to transport automobiles, have theirroofs as high as possible; that is, without infringing upon bridge andtunnel clearances established by the railroads,

' :therefore, it is impracticable to raise the roofs of the car.

In the drawings: Fig. 1 shows a method of loading automobiles in arailway car equipped with my improved device.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of the car with the automobiles omitted.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section of half of the car illustrating theinvention.

1 In the drawings the frame of the car comprises the roof 2, side walls3 and the floor 4. A typical car structure is shown comprising centersills 6, cover plate 7, side sills 8, center sill stilfeners 9, crossbearers 10, cross bearer 'Iltop and bottom plates 12 and. side post 13.

4 Claims. (01. roasts) 5 In order to maintain. the floor .4 as low 'aspossible floor boards are positioned in closeprox imity to the centerconstruction, as shown at 16 in Fig. 3, and also in close proximity tothe top of the side sill 8, as shown at 18 in Fig. 3, necessitating theuse of floor stringers or nailing strips 20 which'are supported at thecross bearers 10 and body bolsters 21 by angle clips 22.

My invention consists in providing a pair of parallel members 30extending lengthwise of the car forming channels having treads 32 belowthe top 34 of the floor and spaced apart the distance (36) between thecenters of the wheels of an automobile whereby when an automobile isloaded in a car with the wheels in such channels, as shown in Fig. 1,the vertical distance for loading thereof in the car is increased. lheeffective loading distance is the distance from the bottom or tread 32of the channel 30 to the underside of the roof 2, the roof framingmembers 38, or load lifting beam 40, as the case may be. In other words,the effective loading height is increased a distance equal to the depth42 of the channel.

The channel members 36 are preferably supported by the cross bearers l0and body bolsters 21 and in order to obtain a greater depth than thatequal to the thickness of the flooring, I prefer to depress the uppersurfaces (44) of these cross bearers (and body bolsters) adjacent thechannel members 30 so that the vertical depth of the channel may becorrespondingly increased. This is shown particularly in Fig. 3.

The floor boards 4 extend laterally of the car and are supported by andpreferably secured to the supporting strips 20, and as the floor boardshave been severed to partially provide the channel, it is necessary tosupport the adjacent ends of these floor boards, which in the formillustrated, is done by providing the channel with lateral flanges 46 towhich the floor boards are bolted (48) or otherwise secured.

In order to provide a flush floor when the car is loaded otherwise thanherein described, I' provide a cover 50 which is hinged (52) at one 10.0edge of the channel and which may be thrown back and laid upon the floorwhen desired. This cover is preferably provided with a stiffeningcorrugation 54.

Any convenient means may be used to block the automobile wheels in thechannel 30.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of theinvention, though it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited to the exact details of construction shown and de- 110.

scribed, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within thescope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a railway car, the combination of a floor, a plurality of crossbearers, and a pair of parallel members extending lengthwise of the carforming channels having treads below the floor and spaced apart thedistance between the centers of the wheels of an automobile whereby thevertical distance for loading automobiles in the car is increased, saidchannel members being supported by said cross bearers which aredecreased in vertical depth adjacent said channel members so that thevertical depth of the channel members may be correspondingly increased.

2. In a railway car, the combination of a floor, and a pair of parallelmembers extending lengthwise of the car forming channels having treadsbelow the floor and spaced apart the distance between the centers of thewheels of an automobile' whereby the vertical distance for loading,members provided with lateral flanges to support the floor. 4. In arailway car, the combination of a floor,

and a pair of parallel members extending lengthwise of the car formingchannels having treads below the floor and spaced apart the distancebetween the centers of the wheels of an automobile whereby the verticaldistance for loading automobiles in the car is increased, and a coverhinged at one edge of said channel which is flush with the top of thefloor when closed.

' GARTH G. GILPIN.

